


i won't let you down

by theafterimages



Category: EXO (Band), SHINee
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bookstore, M/M, Minor Kim Jongin | Kai/Lee Taemin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-26
Updated: 2016-12-26
Packaged: 2018-09-12 08:38:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9064462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theafterimages/pseuds/theafterimages
Summary: Joonmyun’s limited edition Pokémon set arrives damaged, and Minho is the bookstore employee who answers the phone when he calls to complain.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [avirjin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/avirjin/gifts).



> Day two of the Twelve Days of Christmas! This was originally written for N for her birthday. ♥

“Holmes Bookstore, how may I help you?” Minho says in his best phone voice. He’s been told by more than a few customers how nice he is to talk to and prides himself on that. Best at creating the best first impression.

“Yes, hello,” says the voice on the other end of the line. Male, probably around Minho’s age, smooth but strained. Clear signs of someone struggling to sound patient. Minho has answered phone calls like this before, and is already bracing himself. “I ordered a very valuable limited edition Pokémon boxed set from you, but since you packaged it so poorly-” There’s a momentary pause, like the caller is reminding himself to stay calm, “-it arrived damaged.”

Minho grimaces. “I’m sorry to hear that! You can return it for a replacement set, or a refund.” He hopes he will ask for the refund. Between the occasional careless warehouse employee and how roughly the postal service handles things, Minho and his coworkers sometimes daydream aloud about having the power to stop selling any expensive books online at all.

“How do I know that the replacement won’t have the same problems?” the customer points out. “I should probably order from a better vendor.”

Minho immediately frowns, all thoughts about offering a simple refund gone. “No, we’re the best store you can work with,” he insists. “Your replacement set will be perfect. I guarantee it.”

“Really?” he asks dubiously.

Minho nods. “Now what’s your order number?” As he types it in, then waits, the information comes up: Joonmyun Kim, in Chicago. Minho looks at the item price tag and his jaw drops a little. That’s the kind of money he’d spend on soccer merchandise instead.

As soon as the call is over, Minho sets to work. “You have the distributor’s number, right?” he asks Kibum, who’s at the desk next to his.

“Yeah, here,” Kibum says, passing him a well-worn post-it note.

“Good,” Minho says, looking determinedly at it. “I’m going to get him a perfect set if I have to walk it there myself!”

“… you can’t walk it there,” Kibum tells him. “Because you’ll get arrested. For being a freak.”

Minho rolls his eyes at him, and then dials the number.

By the time Minho’s done, the distributor’s representative has promised to send him three boxed sets to look over. They arrive two days later, at which point Minho examines them carefully before choosing the best one, which he then packages himself. It’s all very unusual, but Minho’s word is at stake.

 

 

 

The moment of truth comes four days later. 

“I’ve got it!” Minho says as soon as the phone rings, the way he has every time someone has called in so far that day, and picks it up. Minho has been watching the tracking on Joonmyun’s order ever since it was shipped out, and he saw that it was delivered today. Minho wants to be sure he’s the one who talks to him if he needs to call in again.

Sure enough, this time he hears the voice he’s been waiting for. “Is Minho there?”

“This is he.”

“This is Joonmyun Kim. The replacement set arrived today.” Minho holds his breath, but doesn’t have to wait long: Joonmyun continues, sounding much happier now than he had the first time, “They’re perfect. Thank you.”

Minho beams. “I’m glad to hear it! I packaged it myself, so-” 

“Really?”

“I promised they’d be perfect, remember?”

“Still, that’s way above and beyond.”

“I take it seriously.” On the other side of the counter Jonghyun and Taemin make gagging noises and Minho chucks his pen at them, nailing Jonghyun on the shoulder.

“Shouldn’t you be stockpiling hentai porn to steal for your boyfriend or something?” Minho demands of Taemin when he finally hangs up the phone.

Taemin tsks. “So single, so bitter.”

“Is there even more to stockpile?” Jonghyun asks, laughing. “Don’t you have it all already?”

“There’s always more porn,” Taemin says with a deep, quiet happiness.

Kibum shakes his head. “How are you the only one here with a serious boyfriend?”

“There’s someone for everyone,” Taemin says serenely. Kibum snorts.

Minho finishes typing up the notes on Joonmyun Kim’s order, thinking about the man himself as he does so, or what little he knows about him. He wonders who is out there for Joonmyun.

 

 

 

It’s not until Joonmyun is repackaging the damaged set to send back that he notices the bookstore’s address. He studies it, and then calls his cousin, Jongin.

“Have you ever heard of Holmes Bookstore? It’s in Niles.”

“Yeah, that’s where Taemin works,” Jongin says. 

“That’s what I thought.” 

“We can go when you visit,” Jongin offers. “They have a huge manga section. Especially now that Taemin works there.”

Joonmyun knows Taemin’s taste in manga, and decides not to ask for more details. “Do you know someone there named Minho?” he asks instead.

“Yeah, he’s really nice. Why?” 

After Joonmyun explains the whole story, Jongin laughs. “That sounds like Minho. He’s… intense, sometimes.”

“That’s one word for it,” Joonmyun says with a smile. 

“He’s handsome, too,” Jongin comments. “Want me to send you a picture?”

“What—no!”

Jongin scoffs. “I know you’re interested, hyung,” he says, using the customary honorific even though they’ve both lived in the US since they were kids. “I can hear it.”

“No, you can’t,” Joonmyun debates for the sake of debating. He’s not interested, exactly. It would be ridiculous to be interested on the basis of two five minute phone calls. It’s just that Minho has a nice voice, and he’s so earnest. Joonmyun values sincerity, always has. He’s… well, he’s curious. And he and Jongin would have gone to the bookstore, anyway. And Minho really did go way above and beyond for him. Joonmyun should thank him again while he’s there, at the very least.

 

 

 

Minho is organizing the newly arrived books in the back, setting aside the ones they have ordered in for a Disney display in the kids’ section, when he hears, “Is Minho working today?” 

Minho pops his head around the corner even before Jonghyun and Kibum can answer, and sees Jongin standing at the counter. “Oh, hey Jongin!”

Jongin waves. The smaller man next to him looks at Minho, then smiles suddenly, somehow managing to look even more luminous than he had before. He's Prince Charming handsome, with those features. Minho gets caught on the idea, his brain still half on the Disney books.

“I’m Joonmyun,” the man says, offering his hand. “You reordered those Pokémon volumes for me.”

“Right, I remember.” Minho’s smile widens as he walks over and shakes Joonmyun’s hand. Formal. It’s cute. Joonmyun is cute; and small, almost a head shorter than Jongin. The perfect height to spoon with, Minho finds himself thinking.

“Minho was just talking about you the other day,” Taemin says as he joins them, wrapping his arm around Jongin (Jongin leaning down against him, like he’s not the notably taller one of the pair) and leaning slightly forward to grin at Minho.

“Go show Jongin your tentacle mistletoe again,” Jonghyun tells Taemin gently from his spot at the cash register, shooing them away.

Joonmyun laughs as he watches them go, then looks at Minho again. “Jongin told me you have a great manga selection,” he says hopefully.

“Yeah, the best!” Minho assures him. “Do you want me to show you?”

“That would be great.” 

Minho can, admittedly, get competitive about just about anything; but when Joonmyun smiles again he thinks dazedly that Joonmyun definitely has the nicest smile he has ever seen.

(Kibum and Jonghyun watch them go, Kibum looking from one of them to the other. “There really is someone for everyone,” he says, shaking his head, and Jonghyun laughs and slings his arm around Kibum’s shoulders.)


End file.
